The Government of Onterio plans legislation making it illegal to place any racial or religious restrictions in property deeds, it was reported here today. The government, it is understood, will outlaw any future deeds which stipulate that persons of specific races or religious cannot buy the property.
Since the legality of a restrictive covenant was upheld by Justice A. Schroeder in the Ontario Supreme Court in 1948, and sustained in the Ontario Court of Appeal by a unanimous decision last year, the government has been under pressure by civil liberties groups to enact a prohibitive law.
The covenant in question, which is typical of many in effect in Ontario, bars “any person of the Jewish, Hebrew, Semitic, Negro or colored race or blood,” from ownership or occupation of certain resort homes at Beach O’Pines, on the eastern shore of Lake Huron.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
